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{
    "id": 1196236,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1196236/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 238,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibwezi West, MCCP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mwengi Mutuse",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, this country has 47 counties, 369 sub-counties, 978 divisions, 3,960 locations and 9,000 sub-locations. Because there is no data available on the number of villages because they are not recognised as administrative units, let us assume that each sub- location has about six to 10 villages. We can talk of a maximum of about 90,000 villages. If we recruit one officer in each village who is a real hustler, the real bottom-up, it is my submission that this country can afford. Money that is wasted in public offices and lost through corruption can be used to pay these officers, so that Government services reach the people and those who provide them are paid. As I conclude, I urge Members that it is in the best interest of Kenyans, this House and country, that village elders are paid. I have checked the practice in neighbouring countries. In Tanzania, the equivalent of village elders are being remunerated through allowances. The same is also happening in other weaker economies than ours. As a fundamental rights issue, it is entirely wrong for somebody to work without being paid. Some village elders are called upon to resolve all manner of grievances in the community even in the middle of the night. When someone’s home is invaded by thieves, it is the village elder who calls the Officer Commanding Police Station and yet they do not have airtime. Because they are not remunerated, they have devised a system where people who report cases and seek their services are asked to pay something. That is corruption at the lowest level. The way to arrest the corruption is to resolve that these people be formally recognised and paid. I am aware that in the last Parliament this matter was debated by both Houses. To date, because of impunity, the national Government has never implemented resolutions of the Houses. I have presented to the Speaker a legislative proposal to amend Sections 14 and 15 of the National Government Coordination Act to anchor village elders in the law, so that it is no longer a matter of the benevolence of the ruling regime. It should be a matter of the dictates of the law. For those reasons, I urge Members to support this Motion. This House cannot legislate in vain. We believe that the regime in power, being a regime that campaigned on a platform of bottom-up, will realise that the most bottom-up civil servant is a village elder. Therefore, the village elder should be remunerated in accordance with labour laws and regulations set out by the Public Service Commission. With those remarks, I call upon the Member for Bumula, my friend Hon. Jack Wanami Wamboka, to second the Motion. Before he does so, there has been a lot of interest in this Motion; I recognise the Member for Keiyo South, Hon. Kimaiyo; the Member for Aldai, Hon. Marianne Kitany; the Member for Manyatta, Hon. Mukunji, former Provincial Commissioner the Member for Sotik."
}